Thursday, 24 September 2015

Pre-Halloween promotion madness! ‪#‎TheMagicMattress‬ is on sale on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TWSX648 from the 25th of September until October 1st only for up to 85% off. Go, go, go grab it now!

Extra goosebumps guaranteed for less pennies... who could ask for more?

Tuesday, 25 August 2015

For those of you reading the blog, watching the Youtube video, retweeting on Twitter and following the work on Facebook, I want to thank you for your support (and for being very discerning!) and let you know that I really appreciate it.

As the Magic Mattress expands and evolves with the addition of the audiobook, the printed book, the planned picture book, and the next volumes in the series it becomes a richer and more inclusive universe.

My intention when writing these books has always been to combine the richness of our shared experience of culture, history, famed heroes and villains in their time and place with the supernatural, myth, fantasy and adventure.

Friday, 5 June 2015

Meet old Bill McKenzie, well, at least in art form.I've been very fortunate to work with some great artists during the production of the Magic Mattress series. Though Ballad of Bill McKenzie introduces us to the character, and his tragic story, he is an ongoing presence throughout the series.Here are a few illustrations to introduce you to that wily old Liverpool ghost.In Japan with the anime studio System M.

In China with Jiang Toon studios.

Most recently with the Czech artist Lenka Simeckova.

I'm looking forward to working on an illustrated book of the Magic Mattress and the Ballad of Bill McKenzie in the near future.-Rob Sloane

Monday, 1 June 2015

The
Ballad of Bill McKenzie is the haunting and Gothic first volume introducing
us to the universe and characters of the
Magic Mattress series of books. Epic tales of high
fantasy, ghosts, monsters, adventure, mayhem and mystery... all happening in
our familiar world: just out of sight; or there, in the corner of your eye.

Herein
lies a ghostly little tale of top hats and tall booted fantasy, to stir the
unquiet imagination.

There
is a most infamous ghost in Liverpool. A legendary apparition, to inspire dread
and wonder, and his name: Bill McKenzie. He has haunted the city streets
in his top hat and tall leather boots for as long as any can now remember. Yet,
all anyone truly knows about him is wild speculation and rumour. His is a dark
mystery that has remained secreted for a century and more. And there his bones
sit on a chair, in a pyramid shaped tomb, in an abandoned church yard, on
Rodney Street.

Exactly
how did McKenzie – in his life, an
esteemed engineer and upstanding Victorian - become in death, this ghastly
green-eyed spectre that strikes mortal terror into all who should glance upon
him? Why does his restless shade sing among the shadows that dark lament of
restitution, justice and revenge?

This
then, is old Bill’s ghostly tale,
told exactly as it happened: beware, for it is a macabre affair of the
magical and the supernatural. The eternal game of souls: vast fortunes to be
won, and enormous stakes to be lost. McKenzie’s
fate, however, is not the end of the story – no, not by any means. It is merely
the beginning of the undertaking. The opening moves in a far grander
game: a fantastic adventure spanning all of time and creation.

Sunday, 31 May 2015

Check out the evocative cover art to the Magic Mattress and the Ballad of Bill McKenzie by the greatly talented Lenka Simeckova. It perfectly captures the gothic Victorian dark fantasy tone of the book.The first edition of the book is available right now to purchase as a Kindle exclusive. The print edition will be available from Amazon.com in June 2015.